For the Sake of the Father
by Sela McGrane
Summary: Years of tender looks come to a forbidden love. When Hermione she discovers she's pregnant, Hermione tells Ron he's the father...for the sake of the family she's built… and the man who really is. HG/AW
1. Chapter 1

**After reading "Bookends", by _'selmak' _(awesome pen name, for the record, if you're reading this!), for the, oh, fifteenth time or so, I decided to try my hand at an Arthur/Hermione fic. As far as plans go, this is only meant to be a two shot, this being part one, the next part being not up as of right now. We'll see if there's any interest at all before I take the time to write more. Anyway, hope you guys like the odd pairing. **

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><p>Arthur Weasley gazed tenderly at his daughter-in-law as she pulled away from his embrace; a long embrace brought on by nearly two years of not seeing one another, as she and Ron had been living in Australia for a time. Now that they had returned, the red haired man felt the familiar pang of guilt bubbling in his stomach over the fondness he harbored for Hermione.<p>

He was too fond of her. Arthur knew what was appropriate and what most certainly wasn't, and the dreams he so often had featuring the brown eyed witch in his arms fell firmly in the later category. The worst of it was that he had a hunch that she was not entirely pure in her affections for him, either. He could see it in her eyes, that she wanted him, and he also knew that she'd never be so bold as to plainly state the fact. Arthur had hoped that she and Ron's time in Australia would have lessened one or both of their feelings, but it did not seem to be the case.

"I've missed you," Hermione said to him. "So very much."

"And I have missed _you_," he replied softly. He knew that the truth of how much was clearly written in his eyes right now, and much to his dismay, for the first time, Hermione saw it. He couldn't panic, nor could he allow her to bring what was now officially _their _secret to light with so many other people around them.

"Arthur?" she whispered questioningly.

He tilted his head toward Ron, Molly, and Ginny and Harry. "Later, Hermione," he said calmly.

Arthur felt anything but calm at the moment, but years of being a father to the likes of Fred and George had taught him how to appear calm under the worst of circumstances. This one ranked pretty high on the proverbial list, but still, he stood his ground, stepped away from her with a sigh, and went to greet his youngest son.

He could feel her watching him, that incredible brain probably going over every moment they'd had together up to now, wondering how long he'd felt for her as he did. Hermione would be wondering if she'd led him on - if how he felt was because of what she felt, or if maybe it was the other way around. Arthur didn't think it was either. He believed that the feelings between them had been a natural evolution of the closeness that had begun to form all those years ago when she was the only one awake when he'd leave for the Ministry on those mornings during the summers she had been staying at the Burrow. They had always been quiet around each other, and Arthur now surmised that perhaps that was the only reason that it had taken them this long to realize the other felt the same.

It didn't surprise Arthur when the following morning, as he sat down at the kitchen table for his cup of tea, that Hermione soon joined him. "Morning," he said quietly, much as he always had greeted her.

"We should talk," she said without preamble, pouring herself a cup of tea from the kettle, still warm on the stove. He'd left it on, knowing she'd come. She always did, after all.

"What is there to say, Hermione?" he asked. "You are a married woman, and I am a married man. The fact that you married my son... well, it certainly doesn't simplify things any."

"I know all that," she whispered, lowering her eyes in shame.

Arthur didn't want that: he didn't want to see her shame for loving him. He didn't want to see her tears, especially if it was he who caused them. So, he did the only thing he could think to do in that moment. Arthur stood, walked to the other end of the table, and roughly pulled her to her feet.

She gasped at the intrusion of her personal space, but didn't pull away. Rather, she leaned into his embrace as she had many times before, and his chin rested lightly on her brown curls. "Damn you," he whispered after a moment, knowing what was inevitably about to happen. Like seeing a flood coming, and knowing there was no higher ground to feel to, Arthur suddenly knew that he was about to cross a line to a place there'd be no turning back from.

Hermione looked up at him, her eyes pleading, and as much as Arthur wanted to believe that she was begging him to stop with those beautiful brown eyes, he knew it was quite the opposite. "Please…" she whispered.

"Not here," he heard himself say. "They'll believe me to be at work. Leave a note to say you've gone somewhere...I don't know - shopping or something, and we'll finish this conversation somewhere more safe."

* * *

><p>Hermione didn't care where they were, just so long as it was away from Ron, Molly, and the rest of the Weasley family. It was cliché, she knew, but no one would find them here; no one who mattered anyway. They were all far too engrossed in the wizarding world to think to look for Hermione or Arthur in a muggle hotel, especially while she was supposedly visiting a muggle friend of no particular name, and he was supposedly at work. He'd even gone the extra mile and asked his secretary to tell anyone looking for him that he was out of the office on a case, and to leave a message.<p>

"Well," Arthur said nervously.

Hermione looked at him affectionately. His careful nature was what drew her to him so readily. Arthur took the utmost care in everything he did. Even though many of his co-workers made fun of him, saying the Department for the Misuse of Magical Artifacts was a waste of Ministry resources, he treated the job like it was the most important job in the wizarding world.

"We don't have to do this," she said, giving him one more chance to walk away. She knew that he loved Molly, and Molly was a good woman who Hermione loathed the idea of hurting. That said…

"I want to," he replied.

… Hermione could never deny Arthur what he wanted. Merlin knew she wanted him just as much. It would just be this once - an itch they needed to scratch before it drove them mad. It was something that, when it was over, they'd never speak of it, though she imagined that sometimes there would be shared glances that spoke of remembrance.

With a deep breath, Hermione lifted her cotton shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor, leaving her standing there with low-rise jeans which she went ahead and unbuttoned, and a simple, powder blue lace bra.

"You are so beautiful," Arthur whispered, daring to take a step forward, reach out, and touch her skin.

She shivered at the contact. His fingers brushed her side with care, and her hands rose and rested around his neck. "Kiss me," Hermione uttered, looking him in the eye.

His lips descended on hers roughly, and instinct caused her to return the kiss with equal vigour. Before long, the furry escalated to the ripping of clothes - _Hermione could fix that later_ - and with a push and a shove here, and a grope and tug there, before she quite knew how they had gotten from point A to point B, Hermione felt Arthur's cock sliding inside her, filling her up _perfectly._

"Oh, gods," she moaned, wrapping her legs tightly around his waist.

The look on Arthur's face was almost feral as he began to move inside her. experience was decidedly on his side, as unlike her husband, Arthur made her cum over and over and over again in the hours that followed.

Actually, the fact that the whole event lasted hours was proof enough that Arthur knew more about pleasing a woman than his son did. Hermione could only pray that Ron got this good, given time.

She was exhausted by the time they finished, as so was he. He'd come at least four times, and she...well, Hermione had stopped counting after her twenty-fifth orgasm. _Bloody hell…_

"You know we can't do this again," Arthur whispered after a while of just laying there together, wrapped in a tangle of limbs and sheets.

"I know," she replied, not even feeling sad about the fact. Hermione was not foolish enough to think she could have a long term affair with her father-in-law and not get caught. One time together had been reckless enough. The funny part of it all was that she was less concerned about how much it would hurt Ron to know, though she was plenty worried about that, and more so about how it would affect Molly. Arthur and Molly had been together since their Hogwarts days, and their love had lasted the test of time, financial difficulty, wartime dangers, and even the death of a son. Hermione didn't think there was anything that could break the two of them up, though she wasn't prepared to test fate.

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><p>Arthur dropped his fork when his son Ron announced that he and Hermione were expecting a baby. "Whut?" he asked stupidly, at once wondering how far along Hermione was and - <em>oh Merlin, no<em> - was Ron really the father?

He forced himself not to look at Hermione, though he could sense her looking at him. _Fuck_, he thought.

"Arthur, dear?" Molly's voice said at his left. "Aren't you going to congratulate Ron and Hermione?"

"Oh, of course," he muttered. "That's wonderful, you two."

Arthur carefully avoided a single moment alone with Hermione the rest of the evening, and eventually, they left. He wanted to retreat to his shed, but Molly was determined to celebrate the evening's announcement with some wine, and if he was very lucky, a shag for old time's sake. He and Molly rarely had sex anymore. In fact, he'd not had sex with her since before he and Hermione…

_Oh, Merlin, please let that child be Ron's…_

As Molly reached toward the shelf with the alcohol on it, he called out to her. "I'm feeling more like Firewhisky than wine, dear," he said. "If you'd grab that, I'll get you a wine glass and myself a tumbler."

"Of course," she replied sweetly, oblivious to the panic in her husband's eyes.

By the third glass of firewhisky, Arthur had decided on the _don't ask, don't tell_ method regarding the paternity of Hermione's child. If she didn't tell him outright, he wasn't going to ask. He just prayed that she was just as keen on him not knowing, unless, of course, the baby was Ron, and in that case, the sooner she told him, the bloody better.

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><p>Hermione Weasley smiled down at her daughter - Rose Brianna - wondering if there ever before had been such a beautiful little girl. Red hair befitting of a Weasley decorated her little head, though it was quite curly, reminding her of her own baby pictures. Arthur had been by, with Molly, of course, this morning, and Hermione had avoided eye contact with him, much as she had for the last six months since announcing her pregnancy. After their night together, that had become much the norm; she and Arthur saw each other quite regularly, and the tenderness between them still remained, though there was a distance between them which had grown in magnitude with each passing month of her pregnancy.<p>

She wondered if he knew. She wondered if Arthur had guessed that Rose was his little girl, rather than Ron's. Ron, of course, had no reason to suspect that the squalling red-head was not his own, but Arthur had to at least suspect otherwise. When Hermione had discovered she was pregnant, the first thing she'd done was book an appointment with a healer, and gotten confirmation of exactly when Rose had been conceived.

Healer Lavender Brown entered the room with a soft smile. Lavender had been a dorm mate of Hermione's back at Hogwarts, and while they'd never really gotten along while at school, the final year of the war had done a number on Lavender's maturity. She was the only one besides Hermione herself who knew the truth of Rose's birth.

"How is the newest Weasley?" Lavender asked quietly, warding the room for privacy. She made a habit of doing this when speaking with Hermione, knowing that if the topic of just who the father of this baby was came up, it needed to be conversed about it complete secrecy. While she may have been a gossip queen at Hogwarts, she had since learned the value of relationships borne from trust. "Had Arthur been by yet?"

"He and Molly came by about an hour ago," Hermione replied. "He held her...and for a moment…"

"He had to at least suspect," Lavender said with a sigh.

"Of course. But until he has the nerve to ask a very simple question, I'm not going to tell him."

"Would it change anything if he knew?"

"Not likely," Hermione shrugged. "We agreed that what happened between us was a one-off. It won't happen again -"

Lavender huffed at that.

"I'm serious, Lavender!" Hermione protested.

"I'm sure you think you are," the other former Gryffindor smiled. "However, you now have a child together, and at some point, probably not too far in the future, you will discuss the fact, and with emotions high, I won't be at all surprised if you sleep with him at least one more time."

"Don't you think I've learned by bloody lesson after the first time?" Hermione argued. "I should have known - I mean Arthur _is_ the great inseminator!"

Laughter filled the room, first Lavender's, who was remember Ron giving her a speech about how they shouldn't have sex because he was too worried with his father being the _great inseminator_, that he'd get her pregnant. In retrospect, she was grateful he'd been mature enough to think like that, even if she'd been annoyed back then. Hermione quickly joined in the laugher, it suddenly hitting her how utterly ridiculous this situation was. She had just given birth to her bloody father-in-law's child and was debating what to do about the inevitable facing of the facts.

"Seriously, Hermione," Lavender said with mirth in her eyes. "If he is as good in bed as you said, I'd want to bugger him again, and you know how picky I've become!"

Hermione blushed furiously, holding her infant daughter close to her body.

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><p>Arthur looked toward the kitchen when he heard the Floo come alive. Molly was supposed to be watching Rose today, but she'd had to rush off when Ginny called about wanting to kill Harry. He was certain all would be well in the end between his daughter and son-in-law, but Molly was determined to help defuse the situation. That said, here he was, about to face a situation he'd carefully avoided for just over a year now. He was about to be in a room...in a house...alone… with his daughter-in-law, Hermione.<p>

The daughter-in-law he'd had sex with.

Rose was down for a nap, which didn't help this situation at all. He knew he wouldn't be able to resist asking the question that had plagued his mind for exactly three-hundred and seventy-one days, nights, and hours in between. When he looked at Rose, he felt an affection he'd only ever felt for Hermione. The question was if that affection was brought on by the fact that she was _her_ daughter, or because Rose was _their _daughter.

"Arthur," Hermione said, surprised to see him, alone. He was usually still at work at this hour.

"Rose is napping," he said without preamble. "Molly had to rush off to solve Ginny and Harry's problems."

Hermione laughed at that. "How long has Rose been sleeping?"

"About forty-five minutes," Arthur replied, beckoning Hermione to take a seat. "Before we wake her, I thought perhaps we could talk for a bit."

The young woman paled slightly at his suggestion, which caused his gut to twist uncomfortably. "Go on, ask," she whispered, sitting on the sofa beside him.

"Is Rose...my daughter?" he asked, not daring to look at Hermione.

"Yes," Hermione replied quietly. "She is."

Arthur took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. "Oh Merlin," he muttered.

"I've not kept it from you," Hermione said. "I just needed you to ask. I didn't want to blindside you with a truth you were not ready or willing to face."

"You had to have known I suspected, Hermione," he frowned.

"You'd have been foolish not to," she shrugged. "But still, I wasn't going to just waltz into the Burrow one day and blurt out that you'd gotten me pregnant. Besides, this is the first we've been alone...together...since that morning."

Memories of the encounter which had resulted in Rose's birth flooded both of their minds, and before either knew what was happening, their fingers were entwined, and they were leaning in for a kiss.

_Just one kiss…_ Arthur thought as their lips met.

_Just for a minute…_ he thought as he pulled Hermione onto his lap and the kiss escalated rapidly.

"Please," Hermione begged, rocking her hips as her lips nipped at his neck.

Years of sexual encounters in between the various nap times of seven children had allowed Arthur to fine tune the art of a _quicky_. He knew how to be fast, and he knew how to make it good. The fact of exactly whose clothing he'd just banished along with his own didn't even cross his mind until after he'd sunk his length into her slick, hot folds. "Gods, Hermione…" he muttered, forcing himself to not care about the potential consequences. He'd beat himself up later, presuming Molly didn't show up right about now and there was no later to be had. Those of his children with tempers did _not_ get it from him.

Knowing she wasn't likely to get a good orgasm in this position, he lifted her up, all while staying inside of her, and pressed her back against the nearest all. The irony didn't escape him when he noticed that the portion of wall that he had her pressed against also bore a framed picture of Rose, taken only a few weeks ago.

"Almost…" she whispered as he thrust deeply into her body, pace quickening. He would normally wait a good while before letting himself come, but they hadn't the time they'd had during their last encounter. Molly could come home. One of the kids could pop by. Someone could floo-call. Rose could wake up…

"Together," he grunted, feeling her walls beginning to tighten around him.

Oh...oh…" Hermione panted.

Moments later, they orgasmed in union, and as soon as their heartbeats slowed down a little, Arthur deposited Hermione on the couch. A flick of his wand redressed them both, and to anyone that might happen to walk in, the only thing to bear evidence to what had just happened was the light flush on both of their cheeks.

"I'll go get Rose," Arthur said after a moment of just watching Hermione lay there, staring at him.

"Okay," she whispered.

By the time Arthur reached the nursery that he and Molly kept for when the grandkids visited, Bill and Charlie's old room, Rose was awake and cooing happily. "Hey little one," he said softly.

He picked her up, just holding her for a while, memorizing her features as if it was the first time he'd seen her. "You want to know a secret?" he whispered to her. "I'm your daddy."

* * *

><p>"SON OF A BITCH!" Hermione shouted to her empty flat, having just returned from St. Mungo's and a very, very amused Healer Brown. She was pregnant. Again. With Arthur's child. <em>Again<em>. She was going to bloody neuter than man!

This time, she was not going to keep Arthur in the dark. He already knew Rose was his, so what did another child in the mix of the soap opera their lives had become matter?

"The Burrow!" she shouted, flinging some floo powder into the fireplace. She hadn't seen Arthur in six weeks, not since the afternoon he'd apparently gotten her pregnant...again.

"Hello?" she shouted, as soon as the connection was made.

Arthur's head came into view. "Is everything okay?" he asked, noticing her distressed face.

"I need you to step through," she said through gritted teeth.

Realization dawned on the red haired man's face. "You cannot be serious…"

"GET OVER HERE," she hissed.

A moment later, he emerged into her living room. "Hermione…"

"Do you have super-sperm or something?!" she asked.

"You're pregnant again?" he asked quietly. "It's mine?"

"Yes, and _yes_," she replied, voice low and dangerous.

"We've kept this a secret so far," he reasoned. "We can keep it up."

"Is that what you want, Arthur?" Hermione asked, wondering exactly what sort of relationship they had.

"Well I _don't _want to destroy both of our families," he snapped. "So I don't really see another option. What do you want, Hermione? Shall announce that you're pregnant, and I'm the bloody father, at dinner next week? Should Rose start calling me _daddy_? Should I divorce my wife and do right by my _son's_ wife? Should you destroy your reputation by admitting to sleeping with me?"

"Fine," Hermione said, his case argued quite thoroughly. "I get it."

"This isn't about love," Arthur said quietly, pulling her into his arms. "Or a lack of it. You _know_ how much I care for you."

"I know," she whispered. "I just wish that Rose could grow up knowing who her daddy really is. Her and her sibling-to-be."

"Me too," Arthur sighed. "But we both know it just can't be."

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><p><strong>Continue? PLEASE REVIEW! <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, so much for this being a two shot... here is part two, however, this story has developed a mind of its own, and as such...it is not complete. I'm hoping to close it out in a part three...but as I am a slave to the plot bunny... we'll see on that. Enjoy! Thank you all for your support!**

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><p>Fifteen years ago, Arthur Weasley would never have imagined himself as the sort to lead a double life. He'd heard of men like that, who had two different families, and wondered what sort of man could do that to a woman, or women rather, he claimed to love. Now, he knew what sort of man it took - the kind who had too big a heart for his own damn good, who could go on loving the woman he'd been with for decades, while keeping a mistress on the side whom he loved equally. Not more, not less - equally. He couldn't bear the thought of leaving Molly, nor could he bring himself to stop seeing Hermione. The bizarre twist in his little soap opera was that his <em>other woman<em> was his daughter-in-law. As he and Hermione were here this evening, celebrating a decade and a half and two amazing children together, later this month it would be his son Ron celebrating his twentieth anniversary of marriage to the same woman.

"Arthur, did I show you the latest pictures of the kids?" Hermione asked, nudging him from her side of their bed.

_Their bed…_

After five years of a continuing affair, Arthur had found a small flat with cheap rent and leased it under an assumed name. It was not in a good neighborhood, but as it was too risky to bring the Rose and Hugo here - it's not like _they _knew Ron wasn't their father - it really didn't said, in the last ten years he and Hermione had made it into a nice little home; it did have two bedrooms, though one remained decidedly unused. Neither of them had ever said anything about it, but Arthur believed he was not alone in thinking that it would be a good thing to have if ever their secret was discovered and they and the children needed a place to stay. Rose and Hugo could share a bedroom in the short term, till their parents worked out a way to move them somewhere nicer...presuming their parents weren't murdered by their respective spouses first. Or each others' spouses...Arthur figured that Ron was just as likely to kill him as Molly was, and Molly would probably be more than happy to do in Hermione.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I'm glad Minerva decided to start doing school photos. She hired that Creevy bloke, right?"

"Dennis," Hermione nodded. "His elder brother Colin was in Ginny's year - he died in the final battle. Both of the Creevy boys were very fond of taking pictures, particularly of Harry."

Arthur laughed a little. "Maybe Hugo will finish growing up and they'll make a magazine equivalent of _Potterwatch_," he joked, noting their nearly thirteen year old son's current dream to be a journalist. Hermione had been quite distressed by the notion, decidedly scarred over her history with Rita Skeeter, during the war.

"Ha, ha, ha," she said dryly.

"We should get moving, hun," Arthur said, sitting up. "Molly will be expecting me, and Ron will expect you to meet him at King's Cross."

"So I'll see you tonight at the Burrow, then?" she asked, referring to the planned family dinner with the entire extended family. Harry, Ginny, and their three kids would be there, as would the rest of the Weasley boys and their respective wives, girlfriends, children, or in Percy's case, his boyfriend Gerard.

"Of course, your respectable father-in-law will be there," Arthur said with a sigh. These group get togethers were hardest on Hermione, and he knew it. Ron was bound to drink too much, and get mouthy, at which point it would take all of Arthur's self control not to slug his son into next week. Hermione would mope for weeks, angry that he hadn't stood up for her, and knowing perfectly well why he could not. He _couldn't _be the man to defend her honor, even when the man who should be doing so was the one doing the dishonoring.

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><p>Hermione waved at Ron as he stumbled through the barrier to Platform nine-and-three-quarters. She sighed sadly when she saw him continue to stumble forward - he was obviously drunk. He'd pretty much been that way for the last three years, since finding out that Rose and Hugo were not his children. After an accident on the job, he'd been examined at St. Mungo's and discovered that he was sterile, leading him to ask his wife who the bloody hell had fathered her children.<p>

"_It doesn't matter, Ron!" she'd said. "He can't be a father to the kids, and they do need one. I'm sorry I've cheated but please think about them. They need you!"_

In the end, after a year of marital counseling, they'd agreed to remain together - after all, she couldn't have the man she wanted, so why break up her family? Arthur, of course, knew what Ron had discovered, and in the years since it had made him extra careful in his interactions with his daughter-in-law. Staying married to Ron wasn't easy, especially now that he was pushing the line of a raging drunk, but she still felt it was the right thing to do. Well, as right as one could be in a situation like this. Maturity often asked Hermione what the bloody hell she'd been thinking, sleeping with Arthur. Of course, even the mature Hermione reasoned that if she'd never slept with him, she wouldn't have her children, as Ron had never been able to father them in the first place.

"Hey, 'Mione," Ron slurred, taking his place beside her on the platform as the Hogwarts Express began to come into view. "Ready to have the little bastards home?"

"Don't call them that, Ron," Hermione whispered, biting back the tears. As each year passed, things got worse between them. Ron may have physically stayed in the marriage, but he'd left her emotionally the day he found out that Rose and Hugo weren't his. She was beginning to wonder how much longer she could keep pretending that the boy she'd once called her friend was worth fighting for.

"They _are_ bastards, Hermione," Ron spat. "Not even you deny that, though why you're so keen on no one else knowing the bloody truth I can't fathom. If you were so worried about your reputation as a goody-two-shoes you wouldn't have screwed around on me in the first place."

"Not _now,_" she hissed, as the train pulled up to the station and dozens of children began disembarking, happy to be home for the Easter Holiday.

"There never is a good time for the truth, eh?" Ron mused, ignoring her.

_No_, Hermione thought as Rose and Hugo spotted her and had begun making their way over. _No, there isn't._

* * *

><p>Hugo Weasley's step faltered as he made for his parents. Like his uncles Fred and George, the second year Gryffindor boy loved inventing things. The year before he'd gone to Hogwarts, his parents had started fighting a lot, and so in concern for his mum, he'd invented something similar to the Weezies <em>Extendable Ears<em>. While he was within eyesight of someone, he could hear what they were saying. It was a gel type potion which he'd slathered a bit on his dad's favorite coat sleeve, which acted as a transmitter to the earpiece he always wore when home for the holidays. He'd put some of the gel on him mum's favorite coat too, but she was so bloody anal that she'd washed it a grand total of two days after he'd put it there. His dad, however, was far less regular in cleaning his treasured, brown blazer.

"_They are bastards, Hermione," _Hugo heard his dad say angrily_. "Not even you deny that, though why you're so keen on no one else knowing the bloody truth I can't fathom. If you were so worried about your reputation as a goody-two-shoes you wouldn't have screwed around on me in the first place."_

Bastards? Hugo was shell shocked at the implications; he and Rose were products of their mum having an affair on their dad! Well, who the bloody hell was their dad, then? He and Rose certainly looked like Weasleys, you know, red hair and freckles and all that. Rose had their mum's curly hair, but he was the spitting image of his dad…

… or not…

It didn't take long for Hugo to consider that his dad, _Ron_, that was_, _had four brothers. Uncle Bill would never cheat on Aunt Fleur...he was too scared of her. Uncle Charlie and his mum got along as well as he got on with Scorpius bloody Malfoy. Uncle Percy was gay. Uncle George was so obviously smitten with his long time girlfriend, Alison, that it was ridiculous to think that he'd _do it_ with mum and risk losing Ali. The only other Weasley man around was…

Oh, bloody hell…

It _couldn't be_.

Hugo found his mind drifting to his grandfather. The grandfather who had always doted on he and Rose more than any of the other grandkids. The grandfather who everyone knew was very fond of his mum. The grandfather who he was named after…

But Arthur Weasley wasn't the sort to…

Hugo groaned. There was no way. There had to be other red haired men out there who were _not_ Weasleys. He and Rose's real dad...they'd probably never met him. He probably didn't even know they existed. That's why dad..._Ron_, Hugo mentally corrected, had stuck around after finding out he and Rose weren't his kids - because their biological father wasn't around. That _had_ to be it. Despite his inner protest, something in Hugo's gut still said that he'd been right the first round...that the man they'd grown up calling _Grandad_ was really their father.

* * *

><p>Rose Weasley looked curiously at her brother, who had his 'I'm thinking' face on. She got worried as his face got paler and paler with each passing minute, as she dragged him through the crowd of students toward their parents. "What's wrong?" she whispered.<p>

She and Hugo were close - only fifteen months apart in age and no more siblings than just them, while Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny took the Potter kids, their cousins, traveling on holidays, she and Hugo only had each other.

"We need to talk," he whispered back. "Without _them_."

"Escape plan?" she asked, trusting Hugo completely.

"Duck, hats, and run?" he suggested.

Being two red headed kids, they had always been easy to spot in a crowd. Therefore, the two of them had taken to always keeping hats on hand, to help hide them in a crowd when they wanted to escape their parents. "Add scatter to the plan and meet up at the old Broom Factory?" she amended his plan.

"Three…" Hugo prompted.

"Two…" Rose whispered, letting go of his shoulder.

"One!" her brother hissing, and like bullets, the two Weasley's were off. It was almost ten seconds and a good ten yards later for Rose before she heard her mum calling "Hugo Arthur Weasley!"

"ROSE! Damnit, kid!" she heard her dad shout.

She didn't look back. Once upon a time, she and Hugo had trusted their parents, but then three years ago, the happy family they'd had changed into something akin to a ticking time bomb. Neither of the kids knew what had happened between their parents, but the fact that whatever happened was never shared with Rose and her brother had caused them to distrust their parents, bonding the siblings closer together than ever before.

Fifteen minutes later, and decidedly sure she was not being trailed by either of her parents, Rose entered the old, abandoned Broom Factory that she and Hugo often met up at when they got separated while out and about. Ron and Hermione Weasley had no idea they came here. It was _their _place.

Hugo was already waiting. Normally, he'd have a smirk on his face for having beaten his older sister here, but today, he was just pacing, looking anxious. "Okay, little sib, tell me why we just ditched mum and dad."

"He's not our dad," Hugo whispered. "I overheard he and mum talking about it."

"That gel stuff of yours?" Rose asked, frowning.

"Yeah. He said mum didn't deny cheating, and that we were bastards, and, gods, Rosie, we look like Weasleys so much. If...Ron isn't our dad...who is?"

"You already have a guess, don't you?" Rose asked. She loved her brainiac little brother so much, and had learned to trust him in matters of deductive reasoning.

"Arthur," he whispered.

"GRANDAD?!" Rose shouted, totally unprepared for _that. _"What about Uncle Charlie?"

"He and mum hate each other."

"I know Percy is gay…" Rose mused. "Bill would never cheat on Fleur...George?"

"If he found five minutes to stop shagging Ali in order to knock mum up once, I'd be surprised, let alone twice."

"Grandad?" Rose whispered this time, still shocked and very much weirded out at the notion. "You really think he'd cheat on Grandma?"

"You know how close he and mum are…"

"Bloody hell."

"Do you think dad...er...Ron, knows?" Rose asked.

"He knows he's not our dad, but I don't think he knows who really is. I doubt anyone but mum does...and grandad, I guess," Hugo replied. "If Ron knew, then grandma...Molly would know too...and she'd have _killed_ grandad. Merlin Rose, this changes _everything _if it gets out."

* * *

><p>Arthur was surprised when Hermione directly approached him as soon as she and Ron arrived at the Burrow...alibiet, several hours ahead of schedule. "Did Rose and Hugo come here?" she asked in a low voice.<p>

"Did you and Ron not meet them at King's Cross?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh we did," she drawled, letting out a frustrated groan. "And as Ron and I were arguing about him calling the children _bastards_, Rose and Hugo bolted, and have been no where to be seen since. I'm concerned they somehow overheard."

Arthur frowned. "Well they didn't come here. Do you want me to call my contacts at the Ministry?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, not yet at least. They know we were planning on coming here after dropping their trunks off at the house...I'm hoping they arrive on their own accord."

"Alright then," he agreed. "I was about to head down to my shed for a bit. Let me know if they show up?"

"Of course," Hermione replied, touching his arm lightly.

At that, she turned and began ranting about the situation with Molly - without her suspicions as to why they'd run off - and he made his way down the back yard to his beloved shed. It was his quiet place, where he'd tinker with muggle things, a passion for which his youngest daughter was also enthusiastic, much to Ron's dismay. After fathering nine children, at least one of them was _bound_ to appreciate muggle things like he did.

To his surprise, he opened the shed door to be greeted by the guilty looking faces of the missing children. "Your mother is worried sick," he stated, closing the door behind him. If Hermione was right about what they had overheard, he wanted to defuse the situation best he could before alerting anyone they were here.

"Ron's just angry, I'll bet," Hugo said, shoulders slumping.

"So you did overhear what your parents were talking about?" Arthur asked, no longer doubting the fact.

The children exchanged a look that Arthur could only describe as a mental exchange of _oh bugger_.

"So Hugo was right?" Rose asked timidly. "You're our dad?"

Arthur was dumbfounded that the kids would come to that conclusion. "What on earth did you overhear?" he asked evenly.

"That...Ron's not our dad," Hugo said. "That no one, including him, knows who really is, because mum won't tell."

"And that led you to believe that _I_ was your biological father?" he inquired, still not following Rose and Hugo's reasoning.

"Well, it's obvious we're Weasleys," Rose said, ruffling Hugo's mop of red hair. "And Bill's too scared of Fleur to cheat, Charlie and mum don't get on at all, Percy is gay, and George is too busy shagging Alison to look twice at mum."

"Also," Hugo added. "It's obvious that you love mum. Before now, we just didn't think you loved her like _that_."

"What about your grandmother?" Arthur asked, running out of ways to reason his way out of a very, very, bad situation. "Don't you believe I love her enough to stay faithful?"

"Not our grandmother," Rose pointed out.

"Not the point," Arthur argued.

"Love her? Yes," Hugo said, looking thoughtful. "But I think you love mum too, or at least, you loved her enough to be with her the two times it took to make us."

"What about all the other red haired men out there?" the Weasley patriarch asked, grasping at his final straw. "Surely you two realize the Weasley's are not the only red haired people out there."

"It's possible," Rose agreed. "But you still haven't denied being our dad, and I think that would have been the first thing you would have done if we were wrong."

The proverbial axe had swing. Arthur gulped, and took a seat on his workbench. He said nothing to them, sitting there trying to wrap his head around the notion that after fifteen years of carefully guarding a secret, it was coming undone thanks to Ron's big, bloody, mouth.

"Dad?" Hugo asked quietly.

At this point, there was only one thing to be done. The slim chance he had for keeping the truth of Rose and Hugo's birth between he, Hermione, and their two very intelligent children was to foster trust. Pronto. Which meant...truth. "You two were not supposed to find out," he muttered finally. "But yes, you are both my children."

"Wow," Hugo breathed out.

"How?" Rose asked desperately. "How did you go from being mum's father-in-law to being mum's...boyfriend? Are you still together? Do you…"

"Your mum needs to be a part of this conversation," Arthur interrupted. "I'm going as ask you two to _please_ walk out of this shed, act perfectly normal, and after I talk to your mum, we'll arrange a day where we can meet up as a family and we'll discuss everything then. You have to understand that if _anyone_ else finds out...it will destroy this family in one fell swoop. If your...brother… don't kill me, my wife will. If you have the slightest desire for answers, you will keep your mouths _shut_."

Rose and Hugo had never seen Arthur that serious before. Both nodded, offered muttered _yes, sirs_, and scampered out of the shed and presumably up to the Burrow. Arthur took a few moments to calm himself before following.

It was several hours later before he managed to corner Hermione alone, standing in the garden with a glass of wine, watching the sun set over the ridge. "They know," he whispered.

She glanced at him, eyes wide.

"Rose and Hugo know _everything_," he elaborated. "We'll need to talk to them, soon. I told them very little...just enough to get them to keep quiet for the time being."

"How did they seem to be taking it?" Hermione whispered, looking down.

"Well enough," Arthur answered. "Hugo called me..._dad_."

Hermione smiled softly, still looking at her feet. "I'll bring them to the apartment tomorrow at noon. I'll tell Ron I'm taking them shopping for new robes - you know how he hates doing that with them. Meet us there?"

"Of course," he nodded. "Shall I bring groceries?"

"Just bring what we'll need to make sandwiches," Hermione replied. "And chocolate."

"Buttering them up?" he asked with a wry grin.

"To balance the inevitable mood swings," she replied sadly. "Today, they're in shock. Tomorrow, they will be angry."

Arthur huffed. "They must be Weasleys."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, so in part one, it was just Arthur and Hemrione's POV. In this chapter, I included Rose and Hugo's, as well as Arthur and Hermione. Next update will include Arthur, Hermione, Ron, and one other person. Should it be one of the kids? Should it be Molly? Someone else? Another cannon character? An OC? Perhaps one of Hermione's parents? PLEASE REVIEW, and let me know what you think!<strong>


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